On 1 January 2015, Branksome Heath Junior School formed a formal federation with Sylvan Infants School. The headteacher of the infant school, who had been acting as interim headteacher of the junior school, took over as executive headteacher across the federation. The school is much larger than the average-sized primary school. All pupils attend full time. Most pupils are of White British heritage. A small proportion of them speak English as an additional language. The proportion of disabled pupils and those who have special educational needs is higher than the national average. Nearly two fifths of the pupils in the school receive support funded by the pupil premium. This is higher than that found in most schools. The pupil premium is funding provided to give extra support to those pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and to children who are looked after. The school does not meet the government’s current floor standards, which set the minimum expectations for pupils’ attainment and progress in reading, writing and mathematics. The school has undergone a significant period of staff turnover in the last six months with all of the school leadership team and just over half of the the staff leaving.